Buffeted by debt crisis, EU wins Nobel Peace Prize

Associated Press

October 12, 2012Updated: October 12, 2012 11:06pm

Photo: Kimmo Mantyla, Associated Press

European Union President Herman Van Rompuy, of Belgium, speaks during a press conference held in Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen's official residence Kesaranta in Helsinki, Finland, Friday Oct. 12, 2012. The European Union won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for its efforts to promote peace and democracy in Europe, an award given even though the bloc is struggling with its biggest crisis since it was created in the 1950s. (AP Photo/LEHTIKUVA, Martti Kainulainen) FINLAND OUT

European Union President Herman Van Rompuy, of Belgium, speaks...

BRUSSELS — The European Commission president had no reason to expect anything but another bad day.

But out of the blue, after three years of back-biting and seemingly daily financial crisis, the European Union won the Nobel Peace Prize for fostering peace on a continent long ravaged by war.

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It was a badly needed morale boost for a 60-year-old union in the midst of a midlife crisis.

Even as it announced the award Friday, the Norwegian prize jury warned the financial crisis challenging the 27-nation bloc's unity could lead to a return to “extremism and nationalism.”

It urged Europeans to remember the EU's role in building peace and reconciliation among enemies who fought Europe's bloodiest wars, even as they tackle the economic crisis that threatens its future.

The award was hailed at EU headquarters in Brussels and by pro-EU leaders across Europe, but derided by “euro- skeptics” who consider the EU an elitist super-state that erodes national identities.

Emerging for a brief encounter with reporters, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso was beaming as he declared: “Ladies and gentlemen, I have to say that when I woke up this morning, I did not expect it to be such a good day.”

“The Nobel Peace Prize committee and the international community now are sending a very important message to Europe that the European Union is something very precious, that we should cherish it for the good of Europeans and for the good of the entire world,” he said.

The announcement was met with negative reactions in debt-ridden countries like Spain and Greece, where many blame Germany and other northern EU neighbors for the painful austerity measures like higher taxes and job cuts they have endured in a so-far failed effort to salvage their floundering economies.

As the EU grinds toward the three-year mark in its withering financial crisis, problems abound, progress is slow and 25 million people are out of work.

The prize will do nothing to balance out-of-kilter national budgets or spur economic growth in Greece or bring down the borrowing costs of some of the weaker countries that use the euro, such as Spain.

Nor will it provide solace to the unemployed.

“For them, people may even think that this is cynical,” said Paul De Grauwe, an economist with the London School of Economics. “If I were living in Portugal or Spain or Greece, I would be upset about it: ‘They are giving this prize to these people in Brussels, and they are the source of my misery.'”

Still, there seems little doubt the European Union has played a major role in bringing peace to a continent that had known precious little of it.

Growing out of the devastation of World War II, the premise of the project was that closer economic interdependence would ensure that centuries-old enemies never again turn on each other.

The EU now is made up of 500 million people in 27 nations, with others lined up to join.

“If we ask Europeans anywhere, in any country, of any age, including the youngest ones, they can't imagine that there could be war in Europe today. It's over,” said former French President Valerie Giscard d'Estaing, who was born in Germany, fought in World War II and drafted the first version of the EU constitution.

But if economic ties once brought peace, they now are putting European unity at risk.

The economic crisis has stirred tensions between north and south, caused unemployment to soar and sent hundreds of thousands of people into the streets to protest tax boosts and job cuts.

The bloc's financial disarray is threatening the euro — the common currency used by 17 of its members — and fueling the rise of extremist movements.

Marine Le Pen, head of the far-right National Front in France, told AP Television News that the EU is “massively rejected by Europeans” and doesn't deserve the prize.